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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Script (Review)

I would never have called myself a massive Harry Potter fan because while I loved the movies, growing up, I always thought the books went into far too much detail about minute details and it lost the excitement for me. Admittedly, I have since read them all again and they have grown on me but I don't think they'll ever be my favourites.

To start, I think the release date chosen is truly magical. Not only is it JK Rowling's birthday but Harry Potter's too and it seems only fitting that the celebratory release party be associated with the date.

I think I may have been the only one but oddly I was actually surprised that the book was published as a play. For some reason I was expecting it to have been converted to a novel book. For sure, I knew it had been written as a play but definitely wasn't expecting to read it as one.

The story took a while to get going but it was interesting to see the relationships between the children and their parents. I didn't read into the story before buying it so I'd assumed the focus would be on the trio from the prequels again but it was nice to have it focus on Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy instead. The only thing that really made me smile was their friendship but even Albus annoying me with his irritability and irrational thinking.

Their friendship was genuinely lovely and I felt like Scorpius had much more development than the rest of the characters in the play. I enjoyed their affection for each other and the theme of friendship was handled well. At one point I thought they were going to kiss but I think maybe with the affection side it is more one sided by Albus, so perhaps that will be a further addition to the story later on.

It starts as a continuation of the scene from the Deathly Hallows and that was actually probably one of my favourites of the decisions made. I think it's an almost perfect place to start given how it's now been repeated in 4 different places and it's something that links them all. Meeting Albus Severus Potter, Ginny Weasley and Harry Potter's middle child, we discover the burden of being 'the odd one' in the Potter-Weasley clan.

There were many plots that truly had me questioning the believability of the story. Bellatrix Lestrange and Voldemort having a child. Why would He-Who-Should-Not-Be-Named have an heir if he thought he was unbeatable. I would really like more detail on the ins and outs (not literally) of how that came about.

This storyline completely reads as fanfiction. Voldemort's child is not a story that can be play material. It has to be the sole focus of the play. Instead, the whole 'bring back Cedric' story is confusing and self-limiting. There was very little follow through in the storyline and it was incredibly slow and badly thought out.

Ron and Hermione just had no characteristics of the original characters and I can't get past the injustice. Hermione's parallel life is totally unrealistic. Despite the loss of her true love, I don't think she would turn into a mean version of Snape in the slightest. Given his childhood personality, compared to her's, she is a much stronger character and she wouldn't be so weak to just fall apart so easily. Ron is not just stupid comedy relief which is literally all he did in this story. He didn't once say anything that added and I actually feel that that is a massive injustice to the character. He was totally unrecognised as a character and if I was Rupert I would feel a massive disappointment towards the writers of the script. Not only have they let down Ron the character, but Ron's fan.

Harry just seems to be totally underdeveloped. I understand the focus of the story is on the next generation but why is Harry portrayed as this cruel parent. If anything Albus is completely overdramatic and a total drama queen. All Harry tries to do is be kind and considerate, he makes an effort and it's totally unappreciated. Even after the events that comprise of the story, there doesn't seem to be an all that emotional uplifting reunion. It's washed over.

Visually I'm sure this play is astonishing. With all the special effects, magic and from what I've heard, incredible actors, I think this much be truly amazing to watch come to reality but as a script, I think it comes across as a slow and somewhat boring piece of literature. Having said that I am definitely more excited for the play than ever. Especially to see all the effects because I literally can't imagine them at all. They sound like a movie CGI effect done post editing especially the time-travelling parts but to have them translated in a stage in front of you sounds fantastic. It sounds something similar to Aladdin which I saw recently (read the review here).

It's difficult to summarise what Harry Potter means to people of my generation because it's true that we have grown up with it. I've seen it translated from paper to screen and it's amazing to see that over the years. Not only have I read the characters growing up but I've seen it in Emma, Daniel and Rupert. I will never have the words to thank them, with JK, for bringing this world to light but unfortunately I think this is a money making scheme.

Harry Potter ended with book seven and film 8 for me. I didn't need to be continued because I thought it was a perfect ending and sometimes I even regret the final scene because I thinkt that as an audience, we had enough wisdom to dien our own path for them. Similarly, with Fantastic Beasts I've struggled to understand the whole link. I've seen the trailer and I do like the looks of it, but I think in my head I'm going to put it into an entirely new box because I don't want the series to be ruined and tarnished.

7 books is enough. With incredible films, amazing books that were written and thought out, it doesn't need to be extended. I don't want nor need anymore.

Overall, I think the hype got me to read the book in less than a day because I really wanted and prayed for it to be amazing but I'm not sure it'd be a book I'd read time and time again. Unfortunately, it lacked consistency and became almost the unrealistic Harry Potter world to me. Honestly, I think the perfect description of it is: underwhelming. I didn’t hate it but it just felt like lazy writing but perhaps that's because it's a massive decline from the previous Harry Potter novels.

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